I used to have this fantasy in my early twenties: I thought I would fall in love with a woman who needed me in every way, a woman who was otherwise helpless in life and in bad need of financial and emotional support. Yes, I once dreamt of being a girl's hero. If I was still that person, I think I would've really liked Monster's Ball.

Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for my opinion of this movie, I grew out of that phase. I realized that women aren't often in dire need of such help, and that they are much more attractive when they are fully capable of helping themselves. In fact, many women can be much stronger than men in the able-to-take-care-of-myself department. Leticia (Halle Berry) is not one of these women.

To be fair, life has been extremely hard on Leticia. She is a single mother whose husband (Sean Combs) is on death row, whose house is about to be reposessed, and whose current employment is on shaky ground. She has held up pretty well considering the circumstances. However, after her husband is executed, her life starts to fall apart faster than crashing dominoes, and it's more than she nor any other woman should take.

In another part of the sleepy southern town where Leticia resides, a prison guard named Hank (Bily Bob Thornton) is having troubles of his own. He lives with his racist father (Peter Boyle), whose views he accepts and enforces, and his more open-minded son (Heath Ledger), whom he resents for some reason. Tragedy soon strikes Hank, too. But rather than live in despair, Hank begins a lone journey to change his life for the better.

The paths of the two lead characters cross, and the movie becomes a study of how two people who have been dealt hard blows need one another to survive. I don't have a problem with this premise; my problem is with the unimaginative way this movie executes it. Hank is a hardened man and is naturally able to move forward from his tragedy with nary a look back. Leticia is a down-on-her-luck woman, who needs Hank in every way and is otherwise helpless and in bad need of financial and emotional support. How nice it must be to be Hank, the strong man, swooping in to be Leticia's knight-in-shining-armor. How convenient, also, that this woman happens to be as beautiful as Halle Berry.

I already stopped believing in such fantasy scenarios, but, just to be objective, I was willing to give this one a chance. Unfortunately, too many things bothered me so that I could not buy in to the movie. I didn't buy the idea that both Hank and Leticia needed each other -- Leticia needs Hank, but I got the feeling that Hank would've fared just fine (albeit less happily) without Leticia. If I wasn't supposed to see Hank as needing Leticia, then the movie would simply become a demeaning man-saves-woman story. I was also skeptical of the notion that sex heals wounds as well as it clearly does for these two characters.

Finally -- and I wouldn't even bring this up if this movie itself didn't address the issue of racism -- isn't it a little disturbing that Hank, a middle-class white man, finds his redemption by saving Leticia, a po' black woman? Is this saying something about the ability of a minority female to deal with a crisis -- that she would require someone like Hank to ever be able to rise from her position? And what does this say about the priveleges afforded to the middle-class white male, that he can be a hurtful racist all his life and be instantly redeemed by saving a beautiful minority woman from the pits of despair?

I'd love to see a role reversal, just for once. Let the man be the one who needs to be saved. Let the minority character be in the rare position of having her prejudices unquestioned for most of her life, only to be forgiven once she has fallen in love with an object of her bigotry.

Monster's Ball really isn't as offensive as I'm making it sound, but it had enough problems to trouble me to the point where I can't wholeheartedly recommend it. It may be worth seeing for the acting alone. It's a two-person show, with Billy Bob Thornton turning in another strong performance and Halle Berry breaking out and showing her range. If you're a fan of either or both of these two, you'll be quite happy with the movie. Outside of that, I make no guarantees -- unless you just really enjoy your share of rescue fantasies.

©Jeffrey Chen, Jan. 12, 2002

(Released by Lionsgate and rated "R" for strong sexual content, language and violence.)